


Dragoon

by the_original_n_chan



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Canon-Compliant, Gen, training fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-05 04:40:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1089720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_original_n_chan/pseuds/the_original_n_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bon is training for his second meister.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dragoon

The first recoil jolted him back on his heels. He braced himself more firmly, sighted again, and fired, over and over, fighting to pull the trigger in quick, measured rhythm, to resist the instinct to flinch at each sharp _crack_.

The pistol clicked empty. At a signal from the instructor, Ryuuji laid the weapon on the counter and pulled off his ear protection. As the target slid down the range toward him, he exhaled the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. Experimentally he flexed his hand, still feeling the shock of that kick.

At last the esquires had begun specialized training in their meister disciplines, which for him meant finally getting to work with firearms. He’d been looking forward to it—he was well advanced already in his Aria studies and had been impatient to start catching up in Dragoon. He supposed it did make sense not to start pages off with weapons that could be as deadly to human bystanders as to demons, but it seemed as if it had taken forever to get to this point.

As the target came closer he could see the constellation of bullet holes sprayed across the black silhouette of the goblin and the surrounding white paper. His eyes widened, and then he scowled, setting his jaw with a _tch_ of frustration.

The instructor said cheerfully, “Not bad at all for a first effort, Suguro-kun. All but one of your shots hit the paper, and goblins are an easy kill—any of those shots in the head or body would have taken it out. Still lots of room for improvement, though. Let’s work on accuracy for now. Speed can come later.”

Grimly Ryuuji replaced the target with a new one. As it glided back toward the end of the range, he pulled the heavy earmuffs back on, checked and loaded a new magazine, every movement tautly focused and deliberate.

Rare enough for an esquire to try to take two meisters at once. And he could easily have gone for Doctor as his second—he was at the top of the class in anti-demon pharmacology. He still might take it as a third title later on, once he’d actually become a full-fledged exorcist. But right now he’d made his choice to go for Dragoon, and he was not just going to succeed but excel, no matter if it took him hours, days, weeks, months of work. 

As he raised the pistol and leveled it at the target, Kamiki’s words replayed themselves in his mind, still sharp, still biting.

_While Arias are busy chanting, they’re defenseless. Their party has to protect them. They’re just baggage!_

His mouth tightened in anger and determination.

_I’m not going to be a drag on my team. I’m not going to be somebody who has to be protected._

And as he fired, more methodically this time, his lips moved, soundlessly shaping the words of the scripture, the fatal verse for a goblin—challenging himself even further as he worked to balance that divided concentration, striving for the day when he would be both Aria and Dragoon, fighting with both word and weapon.

**Author's Note:**

> While watching the anime (and reading what I've read of the manga), I always wondered when we were going to see Bon working toward his second meister. And we never really did. (Konekomaru in the manga even notes that Bon tries to use chants in every situation, whether or not it's appropriate.) Maybe that training happens off-screen or something, but without seeing it, the way the students are just suddenly given guns and set to shooting things seems bizarre. But maybe I'm just a crankypants. ^_^


End file.
